Council Passes Common Curfew

The Cambridge City Council early this morning imposed a 9:30 p. m. 8 a. m. curfew on the Cambridge Common following Saturday night's police-youth skirmish in the Square.

About 200 young people caused minor property damage in the Square area Saturday night and early Sunday before police from Cambridge, Boston, and the Metropolitan Police District dispersed them with night-sticks and tear gas.

At least five persons were arrested on charges of receiving stolen property, disturbing the peace, or assault and battery. At least seven persons, including one police officer, were treated and released at local hospitals for minor injuries.

The curfew, passed 7-2 by the City Council, will not go into effect until approved by the City Council. It covers gatherings of large groups on the Common, but does not affect people who want to walk through the Common after 9:30 p. m.

A motion to include in the curfew a ban on the Sunday rock concerts was defeated. But the Council did pass a resolution asking Harvard College to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent "disreputable" persons from congregating at Forbes Plaza in the Holyoke Center.

A second curfew proposal, introduced by Councilman Walter J. Sullivan, to ban all gatherings of five or more persons blocking public ways in the Square was sent to committee, as was a proposal barring all panhandling in the Square. These will be reconsidered at the next Council meeting.

The Cambridge Common curfew followed four hours of public hearings yesterday, in which Harvard Square merchants reported that the rioting had caused them between $50,000 and $100,000 total damage and was driving away customers from the Square area.

The disturbance late Saturday night was the third incident of trashing and police-youth confrontations in the Square this year. On April 15, about 3000 youths rioted in the Square, breaking windows and causing extensive damage to several stores in he area. A smaller disturbance took place on May 4 after a city-wide student strike meeting in the Stadium.

The origin of Saturday's demonstration remains a mystery. A rally and ruot was called for the Cambridge Common at midnight Saturday by unidentified leafleters in celebration of the Castro attack on the Moncada Army Barracks on July 26, 1953. But counter-leaflets also passed out in the Square called the demonstration "a police set-up."

The crowd stormed out of the Common shortly after midnight, turned south on Mass. Ave., attempted to tip over an MBTA bus, burned an American flag, tossed firecrackers at cars, overturned telephone booths, set fire to trash baskets, and broke several windows.

Police broke up the main body of the crowd with tear gas by 1 a. m., but small bands of youths continued roaming the area and looting for several hours. Cambridge officials imposed a curfew from 3 to 8 a. m.

Most of the damage was in the Holyoke Center area, which was also hard hit in the April 15 riot. Saturday's incident, however, was far smaller, and damage was much lighter.

Fewer than 50 people apparently took part in the window-smashing. Another small group of people looted the stores. Several of them reportedly used cars to help cart stolen goods away.